In general, many factors contribute to overall costs of print activities. Moreover, an ability to reliably estimate related print costs can significantly impact efficiency and profitability for such print activities.
In this regard, primary factors that contribute to cost of a print task (e.g., at time of bidding) can include dimensions of print task, cost of printer supplies, such as ink, toner units, and the like. Typically, amount of some resources employed for a predetermined print task can be readily estimated, because information about them can be accurately determined before such print activity is performed. The dimensions of the print task, for example, can identify amount of print media that is typically required for such print activity. Hence, when generating a bid for the print task, one can readily consider cost of the media into account.
To this end, estimating a print task based on printed area can be considered a common practice, as such media can be easily measured. On the other hand, an ability to account for cost of ink, remains more challenging. For example, cost of ink is typically estimated to be a fixed cost, wherein an ability to measure volume of ink employed for a print task remains problematic for various reasons. First, because volume of an ink-drop remains unclear, and second because such volume can quickly change during print activities. Furthermore, interfacing with the printing system can also pose difficulties, as the interfaces are typically not designed to provide such type of information.